Currently Untitled
by MusicIsMySoul64
Summary: Rebecca Bartlett thought she was just a normal teenage girl living in Glens Falls, New York. One little trip to the store reveals that she isn't the person she's been living her life as. When she goes to find the person she really is, is it worth it?
1. Prologue

Prologue

My head was pounding. This isn't even possible. Not logical. I mean really, how much sense does that make? I go to the grocery store, and apparently I'm missing? Lost? Yeah, _sure_. Society expects me to believe that…that my "parents" aren't _really_ my rightful guardians?

My conscience tried to give a reasonable, common-sense-in-mind solution. _Maybe its not you. So she looks kinda similar. This is not something you should be worked up about. Just find a way to calm down and relax. This girl doesn't even look like you did when you were her age. Which is what, 3, maybe? It doesn't matter._

I tried to listen and refrain from screaming. I probably already looked like an idiot, standing at the Missing Children center of the local grocery store, gawking at a picture of someone who I thought was myself. But how could any part of my being be saying that? Oh, it doesn't matter! So what if she looks a LOT like you, and shares your name? The picture that is supposed to show you what you look like when you're older even kinda looks like me! How can I still think that everything I've ever been told isn't a lie? Am I also one of twenty kids? Am I some special "chosen one" in another universe? I can't even bear to think about what my God-given name is.

Now, those of you reading this probably think I am either: A. Delusional, B. Partially (or completely) insane, or C. Both. For those who even care, I wouldn't blame any of you if you even thought D. Have Just Come Out of a Coma and Can't Even Remember how to spell "a". Just so you all are aware, I am not A, B, C or D (thank God for that). I actually was semi-normal just a couple days ago before the world told me that practically everything I know is a lie. A normal human being, or as close to that as I could pass for.

"Rebecca? Can we go now? We promised Mommy we would make breakfast! We have to leave now!" my brother Cody said, pulling on my shirt.

Cody had to drag me to our car and put the keys in the ignition so we could return home. If he hadn't, not only would I have looked stupid, but we wouldn't have made it home.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

And here my story begins.

Or does it start here? That I still can't figure out. I'm still a bit discombobulated from the shell shock of not knowing my family that really is of blood relation to me.

Maybe if I can crawl out of my hysterics I can tell you my story. The weird, well, weirdest I guess, part of this is that I hadn't figured this out. They had pulled off their delicate, intricate plan in such a way that I would never have the slightest clue. Sure, I guess I kind of went along with it a bit too well, never asking to see my birth certificate, verify my Social Security number. It's not like _that_ wouldn't have made them suspicious from the get-go. I had been told so many times that I had shared such a close resemblance to my "mother", or so she wanted me to think. Friends of mine had told me that they could never decipher the voices on the other end of the phone line when they called.

_You don't have any proof. Maybe it's a nightmare. Clearly the irony of the situation could only be portrayed in a dream,_ the voice said. _You'll wake up Sunday morning, realize it's the 30th of November, and that this is all…_I tuned my conscience out. I couldn't bear to speak of it, especially when I was racking my brain trying to figure out who I really must be, if I have even a faint memory of my parents' smile, their persona, charm… what am I saying? This is crazy! I would have remembered the changes I went through, the life I left behind for what I have now, the one that I am trying to remember is the only one I've ever had.

I woke up to the sound of my cell phone's alarm blaring, my eyelids barely maintaining the ability to remain open. I swatted blindly at my empty desk where I assumed my cell phone would be to find it dangling by its charger cord. Once I was too bored to continue sitting with nothing to occupy the time I often waste, I put my feet on the ground and walked out of my room toward the kitchen. I grabbed my usual piece of almost-burnt toast and walked into the 17° air of Glens Falls, the city I loved more than anywhere in the world. Not for any stupid meaningful reason, just because I had never heard of a place greater than this.

I ran out to the mailbox, insanely enough, to realize that mail didn't come this early in the morning, and hurried inside to sit by the fire, my feet numb with the frigid atmosphere. I stopped myself before I stepped into the doorframe. I walked toward our neighbor Mr. Williston's driveway. There was always a word that was written on Mr. Williston's driveway, and every morning I would walk outside just to see what was written on the foot of it. I would write down each word on a sticky note everyday just to pass the time. He walked out towards his car through his garage and glanced my way. He may have been in his mid-70s and thought of as a bit "out there" by our whole neighborhood, but he was one of the few adults that weren't related to me that I could open up to as if they were family. He was like the grandfather I'd never met.

"Hey there! A bit chilly today, isn't it?" He grinned.

"Got that right. I'm gonna freeze." I answered back.

His smile grew two inches bigger. "Well, I'd talk to you morning 'til night, but I have to leave for work. Have a great day, and make sure you have some fun today. Hopefully in your busy schedule there's time for a lot of that. Life takes up too much time to be wasted on boring things." He shut his car door, pulled out of his driveway, and waved at me as he departed in his silver SUV with the trademark scratched paint job near the left headlight. I ran inside so fast that by the time I reached the house I couldn't feel my feet. I laughed aloud and smiled as I sprinted to the fireplace.

And to think how great my life was before Hell had to find a way to bring me down.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Too bad I can't exactly call myself an average American teen anymore.

I sat by the fire, my toes finally capable of having blood rush through them. Warmth ran up my spine as I stared at the black, empty screen on the TV and took a huge gulp of my hot chocolate. I finally realized that I hadn't put any marshmallows in it, so I stood up and reluctantly left the warmth of the fire, realizing how cold the rest of the house was. My mother saw me in the kitchen, and greeted me sweetly, so sweetly most people would think it was insincere, but I loved how pure she was.

"Hello. Good to see you up so early this morning, sleepy-head! Did you have a nice, long rest? You'll need that energy when we go to the tennis courts later." She smiled as she grabbed the things she needed to prepare breakfast.

"Yeah. I don't think I sleep in enough. I'm a little tired, but it won't matter when I beat you in a few matches." I laughed, knowing that this wouldn't happen. I just learned how to play tennis a month ago, and my mom had been playing since she was about 6.

"I don't know...I'm pretty good! Hope you've been practicing," she replied. "Would you mind running to the store and grabbing some pancake mix and some eggs? Cory was looking forward to making breakfast with you this morning." Cory was my six year old brother, and the sweetest little guy you could imagine. His eyes were bigger and bluer than the sky was on the most gorgeous of days with flecks of gray circling his pupil. His hair was blondish-brown, and he looked up to me, doing and saying what I say because he wanted to be just like me when he grew up, as four-year-olds often do with their older siblings. He entered through the hallway, his hair ruffled, indicating he was well rested.

"Hi Mommy! Hi Sissy!" He ran as fast as his chubby little legs would let him to give me a big hug. I laughed. He saw my car keys in my grasp. "Where ya going? I just got here!" He giggled. "Can I come too?"

"If it's alright with Mommy, you're more than welcome." He turned immediately to my mother.

"Mom? Can I go? Pleeeeeease?" He looked at her with huge, pleading eyes that you can't say no to. He was just as smart as he was cute. He memorized the names of the presidents at age 3. Gotta give him credit for that.

"Sure. But hurry back, Dad and I are gonna be hungry!" She smiled and waved as we left the house.

He ran towards my blue convertible, and announced with glee, "I call shotgun!"

"One: you don't know what shotgun _is, _silly. Two, you have to sit in your car seat. Three, you have to be one hundred pounds to sit in the passenger seat. You may be a little chubby, but there is no way on Earth you're one hundred pounds." I ticked his belly, and he laughed so hard, you could hear him at my favorite coffee joint down the street. He finally pulled my hand of his stomach and tried to say with a serious face, "Can we go now, please? We've been here probably two hours already!" It had only been about 30 seconds, but a four-year-old's sense of telling time isn't exactly perfect. I buckled him into his car seat and walked around the car to my seat in front. I adjusted my mirror and put my keys in the ignition. The engine roared to life, and I pulled the top down, the wind in my hair. As we pulled out of the driveway, you could hear him shout, "Grocery store, here we come! WOO-HOOOOOOOOOO!"

How could he be so excited that we were going to a place where I would figure out that he wasn't really my brother?

I'll never understand children.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

As I drove what seemed too slow to me down the highway, the radio blared in my ears, even though the speaker on my side of the car at the foot of the inside of my door had been broken for about 4 months. Cody, being a sociable, normal person, unlike me, decided to end the awkward silence that had occupied our commute to the market.

He treated it as if he were a secret agent who had a mission that needed completion. "OK, so our job is to get breakfast out of the market, into the car, and into our tummies!" He giggled, as if it were hilarious. "Just don't forget to pay for it. That's kind of important, too."

"Copy that, Agent Cody." I said towards his reflection in my mirror with a salute. "I think this mission will be a big success." He chuckled again, and was clearly taking so much amusement out of the situation.

I searched through the parking lot for the parking space closest to our "objective" and parked carefully to prevent any damage to come to my car, which had been a present for my sixteenth birthday from my parents. Cody quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped out of the car, almost slamming the door into the car adjacent to us.

"Shh! We're on a mission, remember?" Cody nodded and winked in my direction.

I reached for his hand to assure that he would be by my side as we crossed the busy road. I clutched the locket that hung from the slim silver chain and dangled near my chest. As I twirled it, I felt as if the world's grudges against me had been resolved and lifted off of my shoulders and out of my head that had once juggled so much stress that occupies a teenage life. I smiled genuinely, which I hadn't done in so long.

The locket was a gift from my grandmother who lives down in South Carolina. The charm itself was in the shape of a silver seashell, as I lived in Florida for many years as a child. I would always fantasize and point out the biggest beach houses while we took a walk together and I would always say, "That's where I'll live when I'm famous," and then dreamt hours on end about how the interior walls being painted bubblegum pink with sparkles or brighter, and you would have a pet unicorn, as any girl would say when she was six or seven. Then again, that was also the time that you were convinced that being a princess would be the best thing in the world, and happily-ever-after's were common in the world, and sadness was scarce. The inside of the locket read the engraved words "Live, Laugh, Love" in a beautiful style, looking as if it could've been calligraphy. It wasn't even the beauty of it that made me love it. It just made me feel safe, almost, and whole.

I pushed the heavy shopping cart as I mindlessly read through the list and navigated throughout the store's busy aisles. Cody seemed to have left his part time job as a secret agent to become a racecar driver, "driving" in the carts that are designed to have seats with steering wheels and buttons to occupy the imagination of kids as their older siblings shop in the store during their busiest hours. He even made his loudest and best racecar sound effects. Kids.

Checking the list for what seemed to be the 10,000th time, I reassured that I had all I needed and proceeded to search what was barely recognizable as a purse anymore, the contents of it filled with things I don't need, things I never needed, makeup, tissues, gift cards that I thought I'd lost years ago, and at the very bottom of the purse, my wallet. I grabbed the money, handed it to the cashier, and brought the cart, filled with what seemed like a lot more groceries than would be found on my mom's list based on the weight. Then again, Cody was in the cart, too.

"Mission accomplished! YEAH!" he said triumphantly, tugging and stabbing at the cart's seatbelt.

We high-fived, and as I packed away all of the groceries into the trunk of my car, the latch of my necklace came undone, and my locket fell to the street right next to the right rear wheel. As it hit the ground, I felt a quick pain in my head, as if someone in my head decided to grab a tennis ball and bounce it across the inside wall of my head. I winced, holding my hand to my head, and picked the locket back up. I slammed the back door (probably too hard), walked back to my seat to put my keys in the ignition, and once the engine roared to life, backed slowly out of the parking lot.


End file.
